1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the combination of a phone and a personal computer in a single portable device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated portable telephone and personal computing device having a hand-held housing that has an improved user interface to both the telephone and computer functions of the device.
2. Background of the Invention
Various attempts have been made in the past to combine both telephone and personal computer functions in a single portable device.
One of the earliest of these devices is shown in German Patent DT 2727-335, issued Dec. 21, 1978 for a mobile telephone transceiver having an alphanumeric keypad with a one-line display and a speaker and microphone incorporated on the front face of the handset. Other examples of handset-type devices which utilize a keypad and/or display screen for the personal computer portion of the device that is arranged on the same face or surface as the speaker and microphone for the telephone portion of the handset include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,481,382 and 5,140,138. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,123,064, Des. 295,411 and Des. 332,604, the telephone speaker and microphone are arranged on a front surface of the handset, while the keypad and display screen are arranged on the opposite or back surface of the handset. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,009, the keypad and display screen for the computer are on the same surface as the microphone and speaker for the telephone portion of the handset, but a handle has been added to the back surface of the handset in order to allow the handset to be held more conveniently. The problem with most handset-type devices has been that the relatively small size of the handset effectively limits the capability of the computer portion of the device.
In order to increase the capabilities of the computer portion of the device and provide the user with a more standard computer interface, a conventional laptop or portable computer has been provided with an attached handset or an integrated speaker and microphone. Examples of these type of laptop-type combination telephone and computer devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 284,193, 314,752, 323,156 and 324,036. None of these devices, however, are truly hand-held portable devices due to the relatively large size of the laptop computer portion of the device.
In an effort to decrease the overall size of the combination computer and telephone without decreasing the capabilities of the computer portion of the device, several devices have utilized a folding-type arrangement for the housing of the device as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,632. In this patent, a portable computer telephone device has a keypad and display on a front surface of the device and a speaker and microphone on one side of the device. The front surface of the device includes a cover that is pivotally mounted such that only a portion of the keypad, such as the numeric dialing pad, and a portion of the display screen are exposed when the cover is closed. This allows for a larger effective keypad and display screen, while still enabling the device to be hand-held. Other examples of hand-held, folding-type combination telephone and computer devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,661,659, Des. 304,930 and Des. 315,347. The problem with these folding-type of devices is that the folding operation can interfere with the convenient use of the device. While the cover portion allows the device to be hand-held without inadvertently entering data on the keypad, when use of the keypad is desired the user must open the cover in order to access the keypad. In addition, the overall width of the device is increased by the cover portion making the device less comfortable to hold for long periods of time.
Although the combination of both telephone and personal computer functions in a hand-held device is very desirable, it has been difficult to provide an easy and convenient interface to the screen and keypad functions of the computer portion of the device that does not inherently decrease the computing capabilities of the device, while still maintaining a handset that is small enough to be hand-held and is comfortable enough as a telephone receiver to carry on extended telephone conversations. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an integrated portable phone and personal computing device having a hand-held housing that has an improved user interface to both the telephone and computer functions of the device.